Esther WilliamsFilmography

Busby Berkeley: Going Through The Roof

Actors: Larry Robinson, Kenneth Anger, Richard Barrios, Dorothy Coonan Wellman, Jerome Delamater

Synopsis: This documentary captures rhythms in the life and career of famed cinema choreographer Busby Berkeley (1895-1976). In the late '20s, Berkeley's work on Broadway led Eddie Cantor to recommend him to producer Sam Goldwyn for the film version of the 1930 Whoopee! (remade in 1944 as Up in Arms). After 42nd Street Read More

Glorious Technicolor

Synopsis: The history of color photography in motion pictures is lovingly detailed with vibrant film clips and first-person interviews in this 60-minute cable TV special. Beginning with such experimental processes as hand-tinting each frame of film (a specialty first of Edison, then perfected by the French Read More

That's Entertainment! III

Actors: June Allyson, Cyd Charisse, Lena Horne, Howard Keel, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: In 1974, MGM Studios released its first compilation of musical highlights from 45 years of Hollywood extravaganzas. Entitled That's Entertainment!, it was a big box-office hit and inspired a second compilation two years later. Eighteen years went by before MGM tried again. The third installment of Read More

Swim, Baby, Swim

Synopsis: Actress Esther Williams, a legend of American swimming, hosts this instructional video that outlines how any child can be taught the important and lifelong skill of swimming. The process is outlined using simple to understand, step-by step visuals. Williams goes over the major points necessary to Read More

That's Entertainment!

Actors: Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Donald O'Connor, Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli, James Stewart, Mickey Rooney, Debbie Reynolds, Peter Lawford

Synopsis: It's ironic that MGM, in such dire financial straits in 1974 that it was selling its fabled back lot and auctioning off artifacts from past movie triumphs, enjoyed one of its biggest box-office hits with That's Entertainment, a compilation of musical highlights from the studio's golden days. Read More

The Big Show

Actors: Esther Williams, Cliff Robertson, Nehemiah Persoff, Robert Vaughn, Margia Dean

Synopsis: Greedy family members engage in bitter infighting over the ownership of a circus. It all begins as a ruthless, corrupt father gets in trouble with the law leaving all but his youngest sons to begin a vicious battle over the business. This is the third variation of Jerome Weidman' novel I'll Never Read More

The Magic Fountain

Actors: Peter Nestler, Helmo Kinderman, Josef Marz, Catherine Hansen, Osman Ragheb

Synopsis: This is a slightly uneven presentation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale about two evil princes, their pure-hearted brother, and a dying king. As the three siblings stand vigil by their father's bedside, they agree that they must go and look for the Magic Fountain, the fountain of life that will Read More

Raw Wind in Eden

Actors: Esther Williams, Jeff Chandler, Rossana Podestà, Carlos Thompson, Rik Battaglia

Synopsis: In her second film for Universal-International, Esther Williams stars as Laura, a high-priced fashion model. While working in Rome, Laura succumbs to the charms of international playboy Wally (Carlos Thompson), agreeing to join him on a chartered plane flight across the Mediterranean. When the Read More

Lux Video Theatre: The Armed Venus

Actors: Esther Williams, Steve Forrest, Peter Graves, John Hudson, Robert Richards

Synopsis: Moviedom's favorite aquatic star Esther Williams made her TV dramatic debut--as a villainess--in this 1957 episode of the NBC anthology Lux Video Theatre. Williams plays Vicki, an apparently schizophrenic young woman who goes from sweet to sinister and back again at a moment's notice. No one can Read More

The Unguarded Moment

Actors: Esther Williams, George Nader, Les Tremayne, John Saxon, Edward Andrews

Synopsis: Esther Williams essays her first dramatic, nonswimming role in The Unguarded Moment. Written by actress Rosalind Russell, the film is a remarkably prescient tale of sexual harassment at the workplace. Williams plays high-school music-teacher Lois Conway, who inadvertently arouses the libido of Read More

Jupiter's Darling

Actors: Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, George Sanders

Synopsis: Esther Williams' long association with MGM came to an abrupt end with Jupiter's Darling, which even she will admit was her silliest film. Based on Robert Sherwood's satirical play The Road to Rome, the film cast as Williams as Amytis, fiancee of vacillating Roman statesman Fabius Maximus (George Sanders Read More

Dangerous When Wet

Actors: Esther Williams, Fernando Lamas, Jack Carson, Charlotte Greenwood, Denise Darcel

Synopsis: Esther Williams stars in this button-cute musical about a health-conscious family of swimmers who fall in with con man Windy Weebe (Jack Carson). The Higgins family decides to swim the English Channel in order to raise money to purchase a prize bull for their Arkansas farm. As she practices for Read More

Easy to Love

Actors: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Tony Martin, John Bromfield, Edna Skinner

Synopsis: The Cole Porter title tune is but one of the musical highlights in the (literally) splashy Esther Williams musical Easy to Love. Reshuffling plot devices utilized in previous Williams vehicles, the film casts Williams as Julie Hallerton, the star of Ray Lloyd's (Van Johnson) aquacade. She loves Read More

Skirts Ahoy!

Actors: Esther Williams, Joan Evans, Vivian Blaine, Barry Sullivan, Keefe Brasselle

Synopsis: Esther Williams generously shares screen time with Joan Evans and Vivian Blaine in Skirts Ahoy! The three leading ladies play WAVE officers who experience a daunting series of romantic misadventures. Whitney Young (Williams) had joined the WAVES after leaving her fiancé at the altar. Conversely Read More

Million Dollar Mermaid

Actors: Esther Williams, Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon, David Brian, Donna Corcoran

Synopsis: Who else but Esther Williams could star in a romantic drama (with musical numbers) bearing a title like this? In Million Dollar Mermaid, Williams plays Annette Kellerman, a real-life Australian swimming star who took up the sport as a child to strengthen her legs, which were severely weakened by a Read More

Texas Carnival

Actors: Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Paula Raymond

Synopsis: MGM's new musical screen team of Esther Williams and Howard Keel were given plenty to do in the pleasant if unambitious songfest Texas Carnival. Williams plays Debbie Telford, one-half of a carnival performing team. The other half is Corny Quinnell (Red Skelton), who breaks up the act when he is Read More

Pagan Love Song

Actors: Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Minna Gombell, Charles Mauu, Rita Moreno

Synopsis: Pagan Love Song derives its title from a 1929 tune written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. The plot is cut from the same cloth as MGM's previous Esther Williams musicals. Sporting a black wig and deep tan, Williams plays American lass Mimi Bennett, who while on vacation in the South Seas is Read More

The Duchess of Idaho

Actors: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, John Lund, Paula Raymond, Clinton Sundberg

Synopsis: This formula Esther Williams musical casts the star as Midwestern carnival swimmer Christine Duncan, in love with bandleader Dick Layn (Van Johnson). Attempting to smooth the course of romance for her friend Ellen Hallet (Paula Raymond), Christine makes a play for Ellen's wealthy boss Douglas J. Read More

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold

Synopsis: So baseball pictures never make money, eh? Try telling that to MGM, which raked in a box office gross of $4 million on their 1949 baseball musical Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Set in 1906, the film concerns the adventures and misadventures of The Wolves, a champion ball club. The team's success Read More

Neptune's Daughter

Actors: Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalban, Betty Garrett, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: Esther Williams and Red Skelton share equal screen time for once in the MGM Technicolor musical Neptune's Daughter. The title character is, of course, Williams, here cast as Eve Barrett, a bathing-suit manufacturer (and sometimes model). Skelton plays Jack Spratt, the masseur at a fancy polo club Read More

On an Island with You

Actors: Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban, Jimmy Durante, Cyd Charisse

Synopsis: The title of this MGM musical alone should tip you to the fact that Esther Williams is the star. In this one, she plays a movie star (what an innovation!), Rosalind Reynolds, who is on location in Hawaii to shoot a picture. Peter Lawford plays the film's naval technical advisor, Lt. Lawrence Y. Read More

This Time for Keeps

Actors: Esther Williams, Johnny Johnston, Lauritz Melchior, Jimmy Durante, Xavier Cugat

Synopsis: In this aqueous musical comedy, an opera singer brings his son to Michigan's Mackinac Island where the son falls in love with the star of the "aquacaper." It is difficult to woo her as she is constantly surrounded by her piano-playing bodyguard and her ever-present grandmother. It's musical and Read More

Fiesta

Actors: Esther Williams, Akim Tamiroff, Ricardo Montalban, John Carroll, Mary Astor

Synopsis: Esther Williams moves from the swimming pool to the bull ring in this musical drama. Antonio Morales (Fortunio Bonanova) was once a champion bullfighter; now in retirement, Antonio and his wife (Mary Astor) have high hopes that their son Mario (Ricardo Montalban) will follow in his father's Read More

Ziegfeld Follies

Actors: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The presence of William Powell as legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of Ziegfeld Follies might lead an impressionable viewer from thinking that this 1946 film is a Technicolor sequel to the 1936 Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld. Not so: this is more in the line of an all-star revue Read More

The Hoodlum Saint

Actors: William Powell, Esther Williams, Angela Lansbury, James Gleason, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: William Powell plays a cynical con man who graduates from penny-ante operations to a big-time charity racket. The scam involves collecting money on behalf of St. Dismas, bringing Powell in close contact with several men of the cloth. As the racket rolls on, Powell is touched by the sincerity of Read More

Easy to Wed

Actors: Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: This Technicolor musical remake of the 1936 comedy classic Libeled Lady isn't quite up to the standards of the original, but on its own terms is quite entertaining. Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn expertly assume the roles originally played by William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow Read More

Thrill of a Romance

Actors: Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Frances Gifford, Henry Travers, Spring Byington

Synopsis: This aquatic musical is set at a mountain resort in the beautiful Sierra Nevadas where a heroic Army Air Corpsman has come for a vacation. There he falls in love with the lovely swimming instructor, who is unfortunately newly married to a rather stodgy businessman. The mayhem begins when her new Read More

Bathing Beauty

Actors: Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone, Bill Goodwin, Ethel Smith

Synopsis: If you've never seen a '40s singing, swimming musical this may be the one to catch. Featuring a mammoth cast, including such notables as Xavier Cugat, Basil Rathbone, Red Skelton, and Esther Williams, this is a swimming spectacular. The plot's quite thin: Skelton plays a lovesick songwriter who Read More

A Guy Named Joe

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson, Ward Bond, Lionel Barrymore, James Gleason

Synopsis: Opening in England during the middle of World War II, A Guy Named Joe tells the story of Pete Sandidge (Spencer Tracy), a tough, devil-may-care bomber pilot who's amassed an enviable record in combat, mostly by taking chances that give his C.O. (James Gleason) the shakes, much as he and the top Read More

Andy Hardy's Double Life

Actors: Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden, Ann Rutherford

Synopsis: Incredible as it may seem, rambunctious 18-year-old Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) finally makes it to college in Andy Hardy's Double Life. Just as he did at Carvel High School, Andy majors in "girls" at college, at one point finding himself engaged simultaneously to two different coeds. On a more Read More